Before delving into the reasons behind this choice, it is worth asking what Pantone is exactly and why it has the power to define the colour of the year.
Let’s start from the premise that the definition has no legal character, if we can call it that, but it is a guideline, a direction. And the world is in desperate need of guidelines.
Pantone was founded in the early 1960s in New Jersey and immediately defined a colour classification standard, the so-called Pantone Matching System.
Since then, colours have found a home, a guide by which to be classified without question, and it still remains one of the main tools for classifying colours.
Behind this year’s choice there is not only the search for the style that will define the time in front of us, but the desire to find an answer to the historical moment we are living.
Ultimate Gray is an important, clear-cut shade that imposes itself on those who look at it and communicates a sense of strength and stability. Qualities that we all seek more than ever in the society that surrounds us.
Illuminating, on the other hand, is a colour in stark contrast to its companion. A brilliant, bright, almost warm yellow. It reminds us what else we need in this 2021.
This pair chosen as the Pantone 2021 colour seems to want to communicate that innovation and hope always have a solid foundation. They must always be rooted in fertile soil if they are to stand out in the future.
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